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Evaluating Energy Consumption Saving from Translucent Concrete Energy and Buildings 153 (2017) 448–460 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy and Buildings j ournal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild Evaluating energy consumption saving from translucent concrete building envelope a b,∗ Aashish Ahuja , Khalid M. Mosalam a Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA b Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA a r a t i b s c t l e i n f o r a c t Article history: The translucent concrete (TC) as a building envelope can offset some lighting energy that is consumed Received 16 February 2017 within a room in an office. It is constructed from concrete panels which are functionalized by embedding Received in revised form 6 May 2017 optical fibers during the manufacturing phase to transmit sunlight. From preliminary results, a volumetric Accepted 20 June 2017 fiber ratio of 6% used in the TC panel leads to savings in lighting energy by around 50%. The utility of panels Available online 31 August 2017 is enhanced if it reduces the heating and cooling requirements of the office room. The sunlight channeled by optical fibers can contribute in heating of room during winter but in summer months, it leads to spike Keywords: in cooling loads. Also, daylight reduces heat dissipation from lighting installations and positively impacts Daylighting cooling loads. The conduction through walls allows heat to be removed from the room during morning Energy utilization but transmits heat from ambient environment into the room later in the afternoon and evening. The Markov chain method Solar radiation presented research combines thermal and lighting analyses to search for an optimal fiber volumetric TC panels ratio for TC panels that would result in energy savings. The TC panels can cut down energy expenditure Thermal analysis by 18% for a fiber volumetric ratio of 5.6% which renders the fabrication process to be practical. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Since the demand for natural daylighting inside the buildings is well established, building designers are beginning to seek means The utilization of sunlight to illuminate the interior spaces of other than windows to capture, transport, and deliver natural light buildings is beneficial as it provides the human occupants with a into the interior spaces of the building. A recent study on novel healthy environment. Moreover, it contributes to energy savings fac¸ ade material made of organic material like sucrose and capable of by decreasing the electricity used for artificial lighting. Currently, diffusing light was published by Gutierrez and Zohdi [5]. Designers exterior glazing is the primary approach to allow natural daylight to have also started using flexible solar light pipes for transmitting pass through a building’s fac¸ ade. Also, we observe that the amount light into the inner rooms of the building. The interests in using of external glazing used in a building, measured by window-to-wall alternative sources of lighting have led to the development of TC ratio (WWR), is increasing in new and retrofitted buildings. A num- panels, which are envisioned to coexist with windows in a building ber of industry codes in the United States like ASHRAE 90.1-2010 so as to not restrict the occupant’s view to the outside environment and ASHRAE 189.1-2013 proposed to limit the amount of glazing or hamper an architect’s ability in designing aesthetically appealing citing low insulation value, high solar heat gains, and the poten- buildings. As we see in Ahuja et al. [2], the optical fibers in the panel tial for glare within the space. In addition, structural safety under have the ability to reduce glare and save up to 50% lighting energy extreme loading conditions mandates reducing glazing or struc- using a reasonable fiber volumetric ratio of ∼6%. turally assessing and designing the glass curtain walls, which are The utility of TC panels is enhanced if it can also reduce the traditionally viewed as non-structural components, refer to Lu et al. heating and cooling loads of the office room. The solar radiation, [14,15]. This paper considers replacing glazing by load-bearing pan- consisting of the entire spectrum of sunlight (ultraviolet, visible els that can be functionalized for light transmission, namely the and infrared), channeled by optical fibers can contribute in heating translucent concrete (TC) panels. the room during the winter season. On the other hand, if the opti- cal fiber density in the TC panels is high, solar radiation leads to overheating and causes cooling loads to consume larger portion of the building energy. Moreover, the use of natural daylight in illumi- ∗ nating the office work space reduces heat dissipation from lighting Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (K.M. Mosalam). installations and positively impacts cooling loads. Moreover, con- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.06.062 0378-7788/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. A. Ahuja, K.M. Mosalam / Energy and Buildings 153 (2017) 448–460 449 Fig. 1. (a) A TC panel manufactured in the laboratory held against the sun and transmitting light, and (b) a computational model of TC panel with embedded optical fibers (illustration not to scale). duction through the walls allows heat to be removedfrom the room 2 2 = − of fiber with a numerical aperture (N. A .) ( ncore ncladding ) of during the morning but transmits heat from the ambient environ- 0.51. The numerical aperture exhibits a limited acceptance cone for ment into the room later in the afternoon and evening. A thermal light transmission given in Fig. 2. analysis algorithm is developed to calculate the heat transfer due to solar radiation, conduction through walls and heat dissipation 2.2. Transmission behavior of optical fibers from lighting installations.The thermal analysis is coupled with lighting analysis to search for an optimal optical fibervolumetric The optical fibers in the TC panel undergo three noticeable phe- ratio for the TC panels that would reduce the energy expenditure nomena: reflection and refraction on its top surface and TIR along on lighting, heating and cooling with respect to energy spent in a the inside walls of the fiber. The fraction of light energy refracted daylight-deprived room with opaque walls. into the optical fiber medium is given as in Zohdi [26]: Further advancements in this technology involve substituting ⎛ ⎛ ⎞ normal weight concrete (NWC) with a new building material called 2 2 nˆ 2 2 − − the ultra-lightweight cement composites (ULCC) developed in Wu ⎜ cos Âi nˆ sin Âi 1 ⎜⎜ ˆ ⎟ et al. [25]. The composite material achieves its light weight from R = 1 − ⎝ ⎠ 2 ⎝ 2 the inclusion of cenospheres that coincidentally also enhances the nˆ 2 2 + − cos Âi nˆ sin Âi thermal insulation of ULCC. The previously mentioned simulations ˆ ⎞ ⎛ ⎞2 (1) are repeated by substituting NWC with ULCC and a small increase 1 2 2 cos  − nˆ − sin  in overall energy saving is observed. ⎜ i i ⎟ ⎟ +⎝ ˆ ⎠ ⎟ The TC panel has the potential to redefine the way people think ⎠ 1 2 2 of concrete walls, from that of opaque and bland element of the cos  + nˆ − sin  i ˆ i envelope, to one that is transporting and providing natural daylight into the interior space of an otherwise artificially lit room. Thus,it ≤ R ≤ = = where 0 1 for an angle of incidence Âi, ˆ t /i 1 (ˆ is is envisioned that together with existing building components, the the ratio of magnetic permeabilities for transmission and incident TC panels might be able to save energy and also offer a comfortable = media) and nˆ nt /ni (nˆ is the ratio of refractive indices for trans- indoor environment to its occupants. mission and incident media). Light rays that do not follow the TIR are converted to heat within the fiber. 2. Theory and modeling 2.3. Ray tracing and light losses in optical fibers 2.1. Constructing and modeling the TC panel The interaction of light rays with optical fibers is computed using a ray tracing method. The development of the ray tracing solver In the study, the TC is manufactured in the laboratory in the form used in this research has been described in detail in Ahuja et al. [1] of panels with dimensions 0.3 m × 0.3 m × 0.1 m. The same dimen- sions are used as reference in computational modeling of the TC panel. The manufactured unit of TC panel and its equivalent com- putational model are shown in Fig. 1. Each TC panel consists of optical fibers embedded during the construction of the concrete panel and by varying the volumetric ratio of these fibers, one can control the transparency of the panel. The optical fiber is a cylinder with diameter of 5 mm. The light travels in the core of the opti- cal fiber which is made of PMMA (Poly-Methyl MethAcrylate). This core is surrounded by a thin layer of PF (PerFluorinated) polymer known as the cladding, which protects the core and allows light to propagate by Total Internal Reflection (TIR) at the core-cladding interface. The refractive index of the cladding is less than that of the core, a requirement necessary to initiate TIR. Also, in the case of plastic optical fibers, refractive indexes vary slightly over a range of wavelengths (280–4000 nm) as given in [7]. This study used a refractive index of 1.49 for the core and 1.40 for the cladding, Fig. 2. Performance of optical fiber deteriorates as light rays subtend larger angles which were provided by the manufacturer of the considered type with fiber. All meridonial rays intersect the centerline of the fiber during ray tracing.
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